Amazing Feature

The Skillful Yogi

Because the Most Advanced Yoga is the One That's Part o Your Life

We are a thriving community dedicated to elevating practice ON and BEYOND the mat.

Barrie Risman created The Skillful Yogi Community in 2018 to help yoga teachers and sincere students deepen their understanding and practice of yoga, integrate the benefits of their practice into their lives, and inspire and enrich their teaching. We do this by providing outstanding, fresh, accessible, and creative online content and a home for a worldwide community of peers.

Bridging Practice, Wisdom, and Real Life on a Mission of Integration

We know that yoga isn’t only what happens on the mat, but in how you live your life the other 23 hours of your day. We see yoga as a path toward more purposeful, responsible, and conscious living that infuses itself into every aspect of your life.

This is why our integrated approach includes a full-spectrum of practices as well as contemplative inquiry and opportunities for enriching conversation.

A Community with a Shared Vision to the True Yoga Lifestyle

We’re yogis who prioritize our own authentic path of inner growth over what the mainstream marketplace wants to tell us being a yogi should look or feel like.

We know that the real yoga lifestyle isn’t reflected in the brand of pants you wear, but in nurturing a sustained connection to your own highest wisdom as a source of trusted guidance, and in a commitment to the practices that help you foster that connection.

At your own pace

Community

Join Barrie and your peers on our private social media platform. Our community forum provides a safe and supportive space for sharing and interacting, and a trusted resource for 1:1 connection in a crowded and sometimes distracting yoga world.

Asana Classes

Creative and expertly-sequenced alignment-based asana classes. From backbends to forward folds, flow to restorative, and everything in between, we've got classes to suit all levels of practitioners, from 20-minute mini-sequences to 90-minute classes. A brand-new class is added every week!

Yogi Home Companion

Timeless wisdom for living yoga thoughtfully prepared for you. This is the daily column I create for our community to plug into the insight that yoga offers us to live more conscious and purposeful lives. From my home, and my heart, to yours.

Ways to Integrate

Four monthly features show up each week to help you deepen your learning: Conversations with guest experts from around the world in our Teachers' Lounge, Talks designed to help you dig into themes of yogic life, Live Q&A with Barrie, and Meditation & Breathwork to explore the more subtle, internal practices of yoga.

You can’t ever fall behind

Like the journey of yoga itself there are no start or end dates here, only a supportive stream of practices and inspiration to ensure you stay close and connected to yoga in whatever way and at whatever pace works best for you.

"These lessons are so unexpected, and so enriching for me, and not just from the yogic perspective, but also just as a human living in the world."

Heather Acomb

"Thank you so very much for creating The Skillful Yogi and its tremendous platform!"

BetsyAnn Baron

"You are amazing with this website. It all crackles with brightness and intelligence and deliberate interactivity."

Cecile Davis Anderson

It's just the perfect program for me. I have realized I've gotten very picky with who I want as a yoga teacher. I want someone inspiring and alignment-based."

Megan Morgan

When "life gets in the way" I feel a sense of comfort knowing I can go to the Skillful Yogi site, find my community and get grounded.

Some "life" trials leave you in a space that feels lonely and without human contact. Your smiling face, your warm voice, give a sense of familiar and family.

Tana Jensen

"WOW! A wonderful discussion today. Thank you so much for bringing these wonderful presenters to us. I have found words of wisdom in each session."

Mary Jo Marsden

Here's what members get each year:

52 new & original classes from me (once a week)

260 columns of "The Yogi Home Companion" (5 days a week)

12 Teacher's Lounge Sessions (once a month)

12 Guided Meditations & Breathwork (once a month)

12 Live, Interactive Q&A sessions (once a month)

12 Talks on Yogic Life (once a month)

Special Courses like the Power of YOU (just this makes it worthwhile)

An invitation from Barrie

Simply by stepping into our virtual retreat site, many of our members find that shifts start to happen as yoga begins to infuse itself into your everyday life. Through engaging with our content and being part of our global community, the transformative power of the practice naturally unfolds in small, subtle, yet significant ways.

I would love to welcome you to our community of seasoned, respectful, and inspired practitioners and yoga teachers.